Foreign Firepower: 5 Chinese Assault Rifles

Chinese Assault Rifles Type 81 — The Type 81 uses a short-stroke gas piston above the barrel and a rotating bolt lock. The gas system features a three-position manual gas regulator with a cutoff position necessary to launch rifle grenades from the muzzle. The receiver is made from stamped steel, and the furniture is wood or plastic. The rifle features an internal bolt-hold-open device and uses the same magazines as the Type 63. The safety selector is located on the left side of the receiver. The standard rifle features a fixed shoulder stock, while the Type 81-1 features a side-folding shoulder stock made from stamped steel and fitted with unusual plastic covers that serve as a rudimentary cheek rest and a rear grip for bayonet thrusts.

Chinese Assault Rifles Type 95 — The Type 95 is another gas-piston-operated design, but this time it has a bullpup configuration. The compact steel receiver is housed within a polymer shell. The Type 95 ejects to the right side, which means firing from the left shoulder can be problematic. The rifle uses proprietary 30-round magazines made of plastic. The safety selector is located on the right side of the receiver, well behind the pistol grip and magazine housing. The Type 95’s integral carry handle hosts a rear iron sight and provides a proprietary scope mount interface. Optional equipment includes a bayonet and a 35mm underbarrel grenade launcher of Chinese design. The carbine version, known as the Type 95C, features a shorter barrel with special flash suppressor and a redesigned handguard.

Chinese Assault Rifles Type 63 — The Type 63 is a gas-operated weapon using a short-stroke gas piston above the barrel and a rotating bolt. Early versions had machined-steel receivers, while late-production versions had stamped receivers. Either way, the rifle had a carbine-type wooden stock with a semi-pistol grip. The safety selector was located at the front of the triggerguard. The proprietary box magazines were built to operate the weapon’s internal bolt-hold-open device when empty. Empty magazines could also be reloaded in place by using 10-round SKS stripper clips. Also, a non-detachable folding spike bayonet was mounted below the muzzle.

Chinese Assault Rifles Type 95-1 — This is a recent modification to the basic Type 95 rifle that addresses some reliability and ergonomics issues with original weapon. The most important changes include having the safety/firing mode selector more conveniently placed above the pistol grip and redesigning the ejection pattern (forward and to the right), which makes shooting from the left side slightly less dangerous for the operator.

Chinese Assault Rifles Type 03 — Like all of its predecessors, the Type 03 rifle features a gas-operated, piston-driven action with a rotating bolt and a manual gas regulator. The two-part receiver is made from lightweight alloys and connected by crosspins. The magazines are the same as those used for Type 95 rifles. The furniture, including the side-folding shoulder stock (which comes standard), is made from polymer.

Foreign Firepower: 5 Chinese Assault Rifles — Chinese soldiers practice shooting from prone with their 7.62x39mm Type 81-1 rifles with side-folding stocks.

The first military “assault rifle” of communist China was of Soviet origin. Adopted by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 1956 as the “Type 56,” it was a Kalashnikov AK built using Soviet documentation and technical assistance. This was along with the Soviet SKS semi-auto carbine, which was also designated as the “Type 56.”

RELATED STORY: Gun Review: The Chinese Type 81

Following the political breakup between the USSR and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), caused by changes in the Soviet political climate after Stalin’s death, Chinese designers were left on their own to develop new small arms. Their first effort, known as the Type 63 assault rifle, entered service in the mid to late 1960s. It was basically an SKS with AK-style rotating bolt, select-fire capability and a detachable box magazine. It was longer than an AK/Type 56 and, apparently, left something to be desired.

As a result, during the late 1970s, the PLA initiated the development of a new small arms system consisting of a standard infantry assault rifle, a rifle with a folding stock for paratroopers and mechanized troops, and a light machine gun/squad automatic weapon. The new small arms system was more or less an evolution of the Type 63 rifle, and it even shared the same magazines, which were incompatible with AK/Type 56 magazines. The Type 81 rifle and its derivatives (the folding-stock Type 81-1 rifle and the Type 81 light machine gun), apparently, were more successful and soon became the mainstay weapon of the PLA, while shorter and less accurate Type 56 rifles were relegated to more specialized duties.

Following the worldwide trend for small-caliber, high-velocity infantry rifles set by the U.S. and followed by the USSR, Chinese small arms experts also decided to decrease the caliber of their standard infantry rifles and squad weapons. Despite the availability of already-proven small-caliber ammunition like the U.S. 5.56x45mm or Soviet 5.45x39mm, Chinese experts decided to develop their own indigenous round. After much testing and evaluation, Chinese designers settled on a bottlenecked, rimless round with a 5.8mm bullet and a 42mm-long steel case. Dubbed the 5.8x42mm “DBP-87,” it fires a 64-grain bullet at a nominal muzzle velocity of 3,050 fps. Early tests were conducted with Type 87 rifles, which were converted from 7.62mm Type 81s by installing new bolts, barrels and plastic furniture. Once the cartridge was ready, an entirely new family of indigenous small arms was adopted.

The first assault rifles of the new family, known as the Type 95 (QBZ-95), were observed in 1997 during the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong. Since then, 5.8mm Type 95 rifles, along with associated Type 95 carbines and Type 95 light machine guns, took over for the 7.62mm Type 81 rifle family as the major small arms system of the PLA. Apparently, the Type 95 system faced some teething problems, however, because in 2003 the PLA introduced a 5.8mm Type 03 rifle of traditional layout. As of now, Type 03 rifles are issued to some People’s Armed Police (PAP) and People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) units, while the PLA issues Type 95 small arms in the basic or improved Type 95-1 versions.

RELATED STORY: Chinese-Type SKS Rifle 56 7.62x39mm

Over the years, China has exported many of its small arms. The Type 63 was exported only in limited numbers. The Type 81, on the other hand, has seen plenty of foreign sales, both in original select-fire versions (to countries such as Albania, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka) and in “civilian” semi-automatic variants. Bangladesh also obtained a manufacturing license for Type 81 rifles. The 5.8mm small arms system hasn’t seen any export sales yet, but Chinese state factories developed a dedicated export-only version of the Type 95 system, designated the “Type 97.” It fires 5.56mm NATO ammo and uses STANAG (M16-type) magazines. Select-fire versions of the Type 97 rifle were sold to some Third World countries, and semi-auto versions are offered worldwide through Norinco of China. The latest Norinco military sales catalogs also lists Type 03 rifles chambered for 5.56mm NATO ammo and adapted for M16-type magazines.

Type 81 SPECS